


Tell Tale Signs

by orphan_account



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Humor, Artist Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Returns, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feels for everyone honestly, Health Issues, I Don't Even Know, Platonic Soulmates, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Romantic Soulmates, Shifting Relationship Dynamics, Steve Rogers Feels, Tags May Change, Tony Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-02 19:14:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8680114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Steve can feel that Tony is distracted, but he can also feel that he’s trying to pay attention. It never used to be like this- Tony always paid attention and he didn’t need to work at it either but now… Steve wasn’t sure what happened. Tony loves Steve, he’s loved him since the moment he saw him standing half in half out of the back entrance to that hotel looking at Tony like he just made some advanced scientific discovery. But something was so off lately with them, with everyone if Tony was honest. He felt so oddly disconnected from everything, even his work sometimes. Bucky didn't remember much, but he'd never forget the feeling he got when Tony opened that door because for the first time in a long, long time he felt safe.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything for these guys for awhile and I really wanted something new and fresh with this pairing because I love it and I want to write it damnit. So I started this because I wanted to explore some relationship dynamics and such :) 
> 
> Enjoy!

Steve can feel that Tony is distracted, but he can also feel that he’s trying to pay attention. It never used to be like this- Tony always paid attention and he didn’t need to work at it either but now… Steve wasn’t sure what happened. They were fine and then suddenly they weren’t, like something cut the bond between them on Tony’s end but not on his end. It was painful to deal with but he didn’t know what else to do. He could practically hear Peggy telling him to talk to Tony, which was obviously the logical thing to do, but how could he possibly bring up Tony’s obvious disinterest in their relationship organically? Especially when Tony didn’t seem to listen much anymore.

*

“You don’t get it Peg, he just doesn’t care anymore,” Steve says, poking at his breakfast with his fork.

“Soul bonds don’t work like that Steve, they either break completely or they don’t break at all. You know that- something else must be going on,” Peggy says.

“Like what? Because nothing has changed except Obadiah pushing Tony more but when doesn’t he do that?” Steve points out. He loathed the man with a passion but he’s Tony’s business partner so he mostly kept his problems with the man to himself. As much as he wanted to tell Obadiah where his shoe fit Tony cared about the man and it wouldn’t be fair to him to have to choose between his soul mate and his business partner. Even if Steve personally felt that Obadiah was a toxic person that did nothing but drag Tony down.

“I don’t know Steve, but something must be going on. You know Tony loves you, we _all_ know Tony loves you. Trust me, Natasha and I got very sick of hearing about you very quickly,” she says. Steve snorts and smiles a little because he remembered the early days when he and Tony met by chance behind the hotel Steve used to work at. He had ducked outside for a break when he ran into someone and _boom_ he felt it, that feeling everyone tried to describe but failed. Tony had turned around when they made eye contact it was like the whole world stopped for a moment and all that was left was Tony standing under that streetlight with snow falling into his thick dark hair. Steve has painted and drawn the contrast so many times he’d never be able to get the image out of his head even if he tried. He had looked so surprised to see Steve and later he would admit that he hadn’t thought he had a soul mate let alone a guy.

Soul mate rules were funny that way- they didn’t really care about whatever sexual orientation you were; you just got whomever the world offered you. Steve has known for years that he’s bisexual but Tony, not so much. He sort of ignored his own bisexuality due to his asshat of a father. Peggy though, she out and out thought she was straight and she ended up with Natasha because the universe didn’t seem to care about sexual orientation. “I miss it, the feeling I got with him back when we met. I don’t know when it changed,” Steve says, smile falling from his face.

Peggy reaches out and grips his hand, “Steve, you need to talk to him. Something is wrong here and you know it, that’s why you’re so worried. And I’m worried about you too,” she says, her grip tightening some. Yeah, he knew he needed to talk to Tony; he just didn’t want to hear all of his worst fears confirmed. He knew it wasn’t healthy to hold onto something that wasn’t really there anymore but he just wanted some more time, just a little, before he inevitably had to give Tony up.

*

“Pepper, you don’t get it, there’s something wrong with me,” Tony says. He loves Steve, he’s loved him since the moment he saw him standing half in half out of the back entrance to that hotel looking at Tony like he just made some advanced scientific discovery. Or maybe like… got famous as an artist or something to put it in terms Steve might actually relate to. But something was so _off_ lately with them, with everyone if Tony was honest. He felt so oddly disconnected from everything, even his work sometimes. Lately it was hard to concentrate on things for a long period of time and sometimes he just fell asleep, which he might peg for exhaustion due to his insomnia but he’s been sleeping more than normal. Hell, more than a normal person’s normal.

“There is nothing wrong with you Tony, people can outgrow their soul mates. You know there’s scientific evidence for this because I know you’ve done research,” Pepper says, not looking up from the file she was reading over. Tony grits his teeth but he gets it, he’s a little dramatic so maybe she didn’t think this was a big deal.

“I know they do but this isn’t that. I love Steve, I do, I just… it’s hard to feel,” he says. It was the best way he could describe his feelings but it wasn’t adequate.

“It’s hard to feel because you’re stuck in nostalgia, Tony, just let go so you can both move on,” Pepper says, finally looking up from her file and setting it aside.

“Soul bonds don’t just disappear, Pepper, not like this. Usually they change following a traumatic event or a drastic change to a person- Steve and I haven’t changed much since we got together. All the big changes happened just before we got together, neither of us has been through anything traumatic in the last couple of years, and there isn’t any other inciting force that would break the bond. All the research says that something has to change in a person’s life before the bond erodes. So something is wrong with me,” he says. Steve could still feel it still because he could see the hurt on Steve’s face when he lost track of what he was saying again, or when he didn’t feel like cuddling or whatever else. Steve still made the effort, so why the hell was he having such a hard time? And why was this leaking into everything else in his life?

“Tony they can make soul bonds in a lab now- they aren’t exactly as special as everyone makes them out to be. There isn’t anything wrong with you because your chemicals fizzled out. They do that sometimes. Just tell Steve what’s going on so you don’t string the poor guy along in a relationship he thinks is fine when it isn’t. And if you really miss the bond that much I hear someone made a street drug that simulates meeting your soul mate for the first time. I hear it’s better than ecstasy,” she says. “Don’t actually do that drug, that was a bad joke,” she adds after a moment.

“In poor taste, yes. And I know about the soul mate drug- it’s pretty popular in club scenes right now. But something is wrong, I can feel it,” he says. He wasn’t supposed to feel like this and he knew it, so what was going on? He never has been very good at figuring out what his body was doing mostly because he ignored all the cues his body gave him. If he was hungry, tired, thirsty, whatever it was he might be he tended to ignore it until the last possible moment. He had ignored his dwindling feelings for Steve until the last moment too because there wasn’t a world in which he could imagine a world without his soul mate. No matter how off he felt he still loved him, there was just something going on right now and he didn’t know what.

Pepper sighs, “then talk to a doctor,” she tells him.

“That’s what I’m doing here, Pep. You’re terrible at advice.”

“That’s because I’m not a doctor. If you think something is wrong then go talk to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about,” she says.

“I personally think you’re an expert,” Tony says. It wasn’t false, the woman knew her stuff.

“I am not a doctor, so I am not an expert. Either accept that your bond with Steve fizzled out and tell him, talk to a doctor, or stop complaining.”

*

When he gets a call from one Phil Coulson about an extremely classified case Tony goes mostly just so he could go home and tell Steve all the new super hush-hush government secrets he learned. It was a favored past time of theirs due to Tony being a consultant with several government agencies in regards to weapon and strange tech that other countries were developing. Whether or not his information was ever useful he never found out- he assumed it was good though because they kept coming back.

“What am I expecting?” he asks Coulson on the phone as he goes to his car.

“Well…” Coulson starts, “to be honest we aren’t sure. That’s why we’re calling you.”

“Vague. You think anyone is listening in because I seriously doubt JARVIS would let anyone hang out in my phone. Spit it out- what am I expecting?” he asks. Happy closes the door behind him as he gets in the back seat somewhat reluctantly. He preferred driving but when he needed to concentrate on Coulson’s words and information he didn’t want to be distracted. He knew very well what happened when drivers got distracted- his parents were killed by someone who was on the phone while driving.

“A cyborg. We think,” Coulson says.

“That’s the fucking coolest thing anyone has ever said to me _ever_. Seriously, I might love you. Where did you pick up your mystery cyborg?” Tony asks.

“Remember that group we discussed? The ones with Nazi roots?” Coulson asks.

“They all have Nazi roots these days, that isn’t very clear. How the hell did they manage to make someone into a cyborg though?” Tony asks.

“They do not all have Nazi roots. I was talking about HYDRA by the way. And we don’t know, that’s why we’re calling you. After you give your assessment we’ll call the guy’s next of kin.”

“Do so all have Nazi roots- it’s like we’re in a superhero movie. Anyways, you should go on and call the guy’s next of kin now. Why would you even hesitate with that?” he asks. He knew damn well why they would hesitate with that- if Tony deemed their cyborg useful they just might try and use him- but he wanted to make Coulson squirm. Steve was going to love this. He always enjoyed when Tony called the government on their shit- even if Coulson didn’t technically count as the whole government. He was close enough.

“We don’t know if he’s dangerous or not,” Coulson says smoothly.

“Do so, you wouldn’t have called me in if he was a danger so call the next of kin, they can see your cyborg after I’m done assessing his… cyborgness.” Coulson grumbles about it some but he eventually hangs up to presumably call the next of kin.

Happy continues driving him to his destination and he considers the possibility of a cyborg. Combining technology with organic bits was tricky with people- materials didn’t tend to hold up as well as the organic stuff and it didn’t work as well either. Hmm. He was curious to see what HYDRA did now mostly because integrating the tech into a person was impossible. Coulson obviously hadn’t figured out how to remove the damn prosthetic.

“We’re here boss,” Happy says, jolting Tony awake.

“Shit, sorry, I didn’t realize I fell asleep,” he says honestly.

Happy frowns, “you okay? You haven’t been looking so good lately,” he says.

“I’m fine, Hap, thanks for asking. Stick around though, I doubt I’ll take long here,” he tells the driver and pulls himself out of the car. For a moment upon standing dizziness hits and he sways a little but his body levels out and he relaxes some.

With a quick shake of his head he starts towards the building, spotting Coulson before he even hits the doors. “He’s a little disoriented but he should be fine to examine,” Coulson says, a slight smile gracing his features. It was his ‘play nice’ smile Tony knew, mostly because he irritated the man into expressing all sorts of emotions that his coworkers found uncharacteristic if their shock was anything to go by. He lived for pissing Coulson off.

“Sure thing, Agent. Where and I going?” he asks. He notes the tick in Coulson’s jaw and silently cheers to himself. He _hated_ being called Agent so Tony made sure to never let Coulson know he actually knew his name and had for some time now.

“Second floor infirmary,” Coulson says before splitting off and leaving him there. Tony snorts; of course he’d get ditched at the first available opportunity. He makes his way to the directed area though and bypasses the security people easily. They inform him that the cyborg was on the last room to the left. When he gets to the door he pauses for a moment, his hand hovering over the knob due to the odd feeling in the pit of his stomach but he ignores it after a moment because the feeling was useless and unwarranted. When he opens the door and spots the occupant, though, everything changes.

*

When Steve gets a call from Agent Coulson he’s more than a little surprised because Coulson basically had no idea who he was. He knew Steve through Tony of course, but he didn’t pay Steve any attention. There was no need to pay any attention to Steve because he had no useful skills to a high official in a government agency, so his call was a little odd. At least until he said that they had recently found one James Buchanan Barnes. Then he dropped the phone and took off.

He had no idea what he was expecting- Bucky has been gone for almost six years- but when he walks into the room he certainly hadn’t expected to find Tony there. What he expected less, though, was the way he and Bucky were looking at each other. He knew the look, he’s drawn it out enough times to have the image of Tony’s face when he fist saw Steve burnt into his brain. Only now he was looking at Bucky like that and suddenly Steve’s world falls from beneath him.

*

Peggy picks up her phone on the fourth ring because she was cooking dinner with Natasha, but when she notes that it’s Steve calling she gets worried. “Hello?” she answers. When Steve sniffles she knows immediately something is wrong. Natasha picks up on the change in her body language immediately, coming closer in the event that she might need comfort not that she was any good with comfort. She was terribly awkward with emotions but Peggy loved her anyways.

“They found Bucky,” Steve says and Peggy feels relief flush through her. So the sniffles were good, thank god.

“That’s amazing? How? _Where_?” she asks. He’s been gone for nearly six years, that wasn’t a small time frame so where had Bucky gotten off to? And why hadn’t he come back?

“No it isn’t,” Steve says in a thick voice, “I wish he had stayed dead.”

Peggy pulls the phone from her ear to give it a strange look, “you _what_?” she asks more shocked than anything.

“I figured- figured out why Tony has been so weird. Turns out he has a new soul mate,” Steve says and starts actively crying. Peggy winces hard because _oh_ , that had to be difficult.

“Does he want vodka?” Natasha asks in a low voice.

“Yes please,” Steve mumbles over the phone, obviously having heard Natasha’s comment. Peggy sighs and prepares herself for a long night while Natasha runs off to grab whatever Russian vodka she had in stock.


	2. Chapter 2

Tony didn’t expect much out of this supposed cyborg but when that familiar sensory overload hits, followed by a rush of dopamine and serotonin. He can feel the bright smile on his own face as he stumbles a little closer to the man. The guy he was looking at clearly felt the same way given his own dopey smile- _wow_ he had a nice smile. “Uh, hey,” Tony says finally, getting an even brighter smile in response. His eyes are bright and crinkled at the edges from his wide grin, sort of like Steve when he was happy, and Tony was tempted to reach out and brush his fingers along the man’s cheek.

Then the door opens and for a moment Tony can’t take his eyes off the man in front of him, but when he does he catches a flash of a surprisingly rare shade of blonde as Steve leaves the room. Tony frowns because he shouldn’t be here; Coulson hardly had a use for him unless he somehow knew that the cyborg guy was his soul mate and… what? Set out to intentionally destroy Tony’s life because he refused to use his name? Even Coulson didn’t seem that petty. “Was that… was Steve Rogers?” the guy behind him asks, drawing Tony’s attention away from why he was here to begin with because now he had an idea…

“Please don’t tell me you’re Bucky Barnes,” he says. Please, _please_ don’t be Bucky Barnes…

“I am. I think. Is that a problem?” Bucky asks and Tony swears under his breath, leaning against Bucky’s bed a little for support as he tried to think out what the hell he was going to do. He doesn’t expect Bucky’s hand to land on his arm, gently touching him as a shock ran through his body. “Hey, whatever it is I’m sure it’ll be okay,” Bucky says softly, gently rubbing his thumb in circles over Tony’s forearm.

“You think that because we’re both high off soul mate chemicals. Steve, he’s also my soul mate. I think he is anyways, I mean things have been weird lately but I don’t love him any less, it’s just that-” he probably would have continued but Bucky thankfully cuts him off.

“Shhh, it’s okay. We’ll work it out. I remember Steve mostly, he’s pretty forgiving. I’m sure he’ll be okay,” Bucky tells him. Tony tries to think of what he would be feeling in Steve’s situation and feels a sharp stab of pain in his heart. Yeah, this was not going to be okay but… but Bucky’s touch was soothing and nice so he relaxes into it for a few moments before pulling away, reveling in the chemicals currently drowning his brain in an attempt to form a quick and long lasting bond with this soul mate. They would stay there for months, slowly dwindling down as a real emotional connection that wasn’t drug based formed. The slow depletion of the chemicals ensured addiction was not going to happen, though there was a significant decrease of serotonin and dopamine levels over the first three days. Generally speaking soul mates didn’t spend much time apart during the first week so they could bond and nurse the headaches they would get from the fast decrease in chemicals in their brains.

It was similar to dropping from ecstasy but a whole lot less shitty- unlike ecstasy the chemicals didn’t leave the brain completely, leaving nothing behind. It was just enough of a drop that the brain didn’t much like it. Some people didn’t notice it, but most did, and then there were the select few that got too much of a drop and got sick for a few days. Tony happened to be in the middle most common category, at least with Steve. Different soul mates had different reactions, so if a person had three soul mates they could have three different reactions to the initial chemical drop.

“I’m supposed to check you out,” Tony finally says, looking over at Bucky.

He grins, “you can check me out anytime,” he says.

Tony snorts, “you know what I meant.”

“So you’re a doctor then? Weird, all the other doctors had those ugly white lab coats on,” Bucky says, frowning slightly.

“You don’t recognize me?” Tony asks more out of shock than anything. The last time he ran into someone who didn’t recognize him he was six.

“No. Should I?” Bucky asks, clearly lost on how to proceed.

“Not exactly. I’m a famous engineer- I’ve revolutionized the tech industry several times over. And I’m loud; I generate a lot of attention because I happen to have a very uh… _lively_ personality. People tend to recognize me because they see me on T.V a lot for either inventing some new amazing thing or because I fucked my way through an entire modeling agency.” Not that he wanted to admit that last bit now but his entire life is public record, there was no escaping his indiscretions now.

“And Steve?” Bucky asks.

“What about Steve?” Tony asks, not sure where Bucky was going with this.

“How does he factor in with all this?” It would be a better question if Tony knew what Bucky was looking for but he got the idea that Bucky might now be sure what he was looking for either.

“My parents died around the same time you supposedly died. I basically went on a three-year bender- drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling, working in the lab for days on end, I did whatever I could to make sure I couldn’t feel anything. I met Steve, who was also still on a similar bender due to losing you, behind a hotel and boom. That was that, we both got our shit together, which sucked because by that point I was definitely an addict and I’m a CEO, I can’t afford time off. Steve was smart enough to avoid over drinking for the most part but he still had a hell of a time finding new ways to deal with your loss. In short our first few months together were hardly the honeymoon shit you see in movies. But we worked out.” Until recently anyways.

“Oh. Well… then how do I factor in?” Bucky asks, apparently getting the answer he wanted from Tony.

“Not sure yet. I’m going to look you over and then go talk to Steve, see what’s going on here. Obviously this isn’t a three-way bond or he likely wouldn’t have taken off.” He wasn’t sure how to take that, or what kind of bond this was. When someone had more than one soul mate typically it the bond was between all the soul mates, not just a few of them. It kept the group dynamic more equal, ensuring the survival of that relationship.

“Will… will you still love me?” Bucky asks in an almost small voice. He looks worried; his brow furrowed just a bit as he considered the options.

“Of course I will,” Tony says quickly, brushing some of Bucky’s hair back from his forehead. “I just need to figure out how this is going to work, which means you and Steve are going to need to talk too at some point. I can work things out on my end but I can’t do much for the two of you. Now I need to look at uh… your arm I guess. Don’t know how the hell I messed that,” he mumbles, looking down at the cybernetic limb.

The arm is metal, obviously a light material given that it seemed to connect to Bucky’s shoulder but it wasn’t dented. What was both light enough and durable enough to connect to a human body without being soft enough to dent at the drop of a hat? Tony watches as Bucky shifts uncomfortably, his arm moving with him. Amazingly the arm plates move too, shifting uncomfortably with the rest of Bucky’s body like it was as organic as the rest of him.

“Shit, that is amazing. Too bad whoever made this is a Nazi piece of shit- they could have revolutionized the industry with this. Seriously, it’s moving in discomfort _with_ -“ Tony cuts himself off and stands up straighter. “Sorry. I get really into tech- I’m not going to do… whatever it is HYDRA did to you,” Bucky flinches at the mention of HYDRA and Tony winces too. “Sorry,” he says again, “my job here is to assess the arm. My assessment says this kind of technology is impossible with current technologies but it wouldn’t be the first time someone built something that shouldn’t exist.”

“Have you done that? Built something that can’t exist?” Bucky asks.

“Several times, yeah. And now I’m going to try and recreate that arm but I’m probably going to have to run tests-” Bucky flinches back hard from that, actively sitting up and moving away from Tony. Given the soul mate chemical bath his brain was currently soaked in he shouldn’t be doing that. “Hey, hey, calm down. It isn’t anything invasive- nothing will even touch you technically. It’ll be a couple scans to see what’s going on in there without actually poking around at something I don’t understand. I’m not going to hurt you, okay?” Tony says slowly, putting his hands up a little on some weird instinct that that’ll help.

It takes a few long, tense moments but Bucky calms a little. “What do you mean scans?” he asks eventually.

“Basically you’ll stand in the middle of my lab- it’s more of a workshop really,” he adds when Bucky looks uncomfortable again, “and JARVIS, my AI, will scan you. That’s it.”

“AI?” Bucky asks softly.

“Artificial Intelligence,” Tony explains.

“You have artificial intelligence?” Bucky asks, surprised.

“I do. He’s not the full extent of what an AI can be- he’s only semi autonomous but he still runs of self- learning algorithms that ensure that more often than not I don’t actually need to teach him how to do things. He learns on his own.” At some point he wanted to take a stab at creating a completely autonomous AI but for now he didn’t have the funds or the resources for that.

Bucky looks dumbstruck, “holy hell, I feel like I just fell into a sci-fi novel.”

“With that arm you’d fit right in. It isn’t a bad thing,” Tony says when Bucky gives his arm a disdainful look. “Personally I am a _huge_ fan of technology,” he tells Bucky, grinning wide enough that Bucky gives him a small smile in return.

*

Steve is sitting outside waiting for Peggy and Natasha to show up when Tony finds him. He knows its Tony who puts his hand on his shoulder because he can feel the familiar tingles of his soul mate’s touch. Probably some residual effect or something. “Hey,” Tony says softly, sitting down beside Steve. He must be a masochist or something because the first thing he does is curl into Tony’s touch, trying to shrink himself to be small enough to fit into Tony’s arms. For the first time probably ever he curses that late growth spurt that hit in his late teens. He wraps his arms around Tony’s waist and presses his face into Tony’s shoulder in an attempt to hide his tears. “Shh,” Tony says softly, kissing the top of his head, “it’s okay. It’s okay,” he murmurs.

“To you, maybe,” he replies when he can speak past the lump in his throat. To him this was one of the worst things that has ever happened to him. With Tony he finally learned to be happy with Bucky gone, how to cope. They learned to cope together and it was hard, it was _still_ hard sometimes, but it was a struggle they went through together. Tony understood things that Steve’s friends didn’t, probably never would, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to cope with not having that.

“To all of us. My bond to you isn’t gone, I know you can feel it,” Tony says, pressing his hand to Steve’s lower back and no, no he could still feel the warmth and the tingles and the love from just the simple touch but it was bound to go away.

“For now,” he says to Tony. It was succinct enough to get his point across.

“Forever. Steve, we’ve gone through _so much_ together. I can’t just let all of that go, I love you and I always will okay?” Tony says, pressing another kiss into his hair. Then why did he have another soul mate? If he was enough Tony wouldn’t _need_ another soul mate, they would be fine as is. “Steve, you know that isn’t how soul mates work,” Tony says, causing him to jump in surprise a little because he hadn’t realized he said that out loud.

“Then explain what this is, why am I not good enough?” Steve asks almost angrily.

“You are good enough- when people have more than one soul mate it isn’t because they aren’t fulfilled with the first one. It’s because, for whatever reason, that person would benefit from having more than one person in their life. Empirically speaking near every triad of soul mates studied said they felt perfectly fulfilled before meeting their third soul mate, and after they said their relationship came out stronger after adding the third person. It has nothing to do with who is or isn’t good enough, it has to do with whether or not we’d benefit from a third person,” Tony says. Of course he’d have some bullshit science to back it up, he was always studying something. Probably why he had seven PhDs by now.

“Bucky isn’t my soul mate, never was. Why the hell would he be a useful addition to our relationship?” he asks more out of bitterness than anything. He wasn’t looking for an answer to the question, he was just pissed off about this whole situation.

“I don’t know Steve, but I do know you two had _something_ between you. You don’t go off the rails like that unless a person means a whole lot to you,” Tony points out.

“We’ve known each other since we were kids, of course he meant a lot to me, he was basically my brother,” he snaps. Didn’t mean he was willing to share his _soul mate_ with Bucky.

“Or a platonic soul mate. The connection presents differently, there isn’t a lot of research on it, and people only ever talk about romantic soul mates. It would make sense that you didn’t notice, especially since you met as kids,” Tony says.

“Stop trying to make him seem less intrusive to me.” There was nothing that was going to make him happier about this situation.

“Steve-” Tony starts but Steve cuts him off.

“What if this was you? What if Rhodey was my soul mate and you had to deal with this, hmm?” he asks.

“I would accept it in part because there’s nothing I can do about it, but also because I’m smart enough to know that loving one person doesn’t stop me from loving another- even if it involves soul mate bonds. I mean yeah, it might hurt a little, and yeah it would be difficult to deal with, but ultimately I’d trust you enough to know that you’d love me still- even if you had a better option to love,” Tony says, ending his rant quietly, looking away.

“I wouldn’t love Rhodey any more than you,” Steve says quietly, “and even with your difficulties you aren’t hard to love.”

“Then why assume I’d love Bucky any more than you? For one that’s insulting, and more importantly I’m not totally sure I could ever love Bucky as much as I love you. If anyone is getting the short end of the stick here it’s him,” Tony says, making a face as he says it.

Steve relaxes some and he feels horrible for it. He shouldn’t feel relieved and strangely vindicated that Bucky would always be playing second fiddle to him. It was cruel and vindictive but Steve can’t help but smile at the knowledge.


	3. Chapter 3

Steve presses Tony close to him, happy when he responds by curling up closer for the first time in a long time. There’s a small part of him that thinks it’s because of Bucky, because Tony’s brain was swimming in soul mate bonding hormones and he was all that was around to bond to, but he ignores that in favor of finally enjoying some time with Tony with no interruptions. It wasn’t going to last long because Bucky was being dropped off later, unfortunately, but for now Tony was all his. “I’ve been feeling off lately,” Tony says finally; face half hidden in Steve’s shoulder.

Emotions were hard for Tony because his asshole father screwed him up pretty bad. Steve is half disappointed that he’s dead because he’d _love_ to have a chat with the man. Tony at least didn’t have to deal with him anymore though, so he counted small blessings. “I know, you’ve been distant,” he says.

“More distant than usual, you mean,” Tony says. He doesn’t want to have this argument again but Tony always has been argumentative and bold. It was as good a combination as it was bad.

“Fine, more distant than usual. But usually you’re willing to at least tell me you need space, what’s been going on lately?” he asks. The dreaded question that he’s been avoiding for months, and the question he needed answered before his best friend showed up to ruin his life for a second time. Fucking Bucky. They used to be close, and then he died and Steve was… he was a wreak and then he met Tony by chance and Tony understood things other people didn’t. Like how mad he was at Bucky for dying, for abandoning him here by himself. He mentioned the anger once to Peggy and she had looked horrified but Tony _got_ it, he understood why he was so mad at Bucky. And he understood why he wasn’t really mad at all.

And now he needed to know if that was all going to go away because god damn Bucky had to come back and he had to be soul mated to Steve’s soul mate. Sure, they used to share everything before he fell but Steve wasn’t exactly the sharing type when it came to his partners let alone his soul mate.

Tony lifts his head and examines Steve for a moment, probably surprised that he wasn’t fighting Tony on his stance of being distant. Tony was… different in his affections and he noticed that the things that attracted Tony and held his attention were not the things that attracted most people to others. Tony had a thing for intelligence, for one, and not just the math based kind. Steve had been more than a little surprised when Tony had taken an interest in his art because he knew for sure that Tony disliked art, but he clung to Steve’s every word.

Later he told Steve that it was his passion for the subject that drew him in, and how much he knew about it. Experts drew in Tony’s attention, but only those who were particularly talented held it. Like Pepper Potts, a woman who climbed the business food chain in SI in a very short amount of time until she ended up all but Tony’s business partner. Or James Rhodes, who was a genius like Tony himself and an expert tactician and engineer.

It made Steve wonder what kind of expertise of his held Tony’s attention, or maybe it was nothing that was meant to last. Maybe he was just a placeholder for Bucky all this time. They had a lot in common and personality-wise Bucky was more similar to Tony than Steve…

“I don’t really know what’s going on. I’ve been really fuzzy lately with everything; even my engineering is a little sloppy. Rhodey has noticed and he isn’t even in the country,” Tony says, frowning a little like he always did when someone noticed something about him that he wasn’t making an effort to play up. Tony Stark was dramatic, a star, but he used that like a shield and it broke Steve’s heart every time he noticed something about Tony only to have him act surprised that he was paying attention to something beyond the glitz and glam.

“Are you okay?” he asks, gently tracing his fingers up and down Tony’s arm.

Tony grins a little, always hiding behind his charm, “‘course honey. Always.” Steve wasn’t so sure but fighting with Tony was useless so he lets it go.

*

Bucky bites his lip as he stands in Tony’s elevator waiting to be shot up and into his penthouse. Shit. _Shit_. He didn’t know what to do with any of this and he was bordering on panic. Soul mates, unless he was missing out on some new policy in the last six years, typically spent a lot of time together in the first few months so breaking leases and taking leaves from work was normal. But Bucky had no job, no home, and until a few days ago no identity either. Sometimes he still wasn’t sure who he was and here he was moving in with his old best friend- something he expected- and his soul mate. Except ‘his’ referred to the relationship Tony technically had with _both_ of them and Steve… Bucky was missing a lot still but he knew Steve, Steve was the first thing he remembered and how he wished he hadn’t. If he hadn’t than he could pass Steve’s coldness towards him off as a soul mate thing, or maybe anger at being alive.

But he knew Steve better than he knew himself, literally now, he knew what it looked like when Steve hated someone. And Steve _hated_ him. He’s seen the tight expression, pursed lips, cool aloofness, crossed arms, and barely-there interactions before and that’s all he got from Steve now. Steve hated him more than he’s hated anyone else before and that scared him. Before Tony showed up Steve was the one thing Bucky was sure of, the one thing he knew he could trust. When SHIELD first found him he was more than prepared for a fight and he would have won too. He knew what he was capable of and there were only four agents. It would almost be child’s play to him at this point, but the guy in the suit, he said something about Steve. It was a blur now, but it made him stop for a moment to think.

Then Tony showed up and screwed that all up and that was simultaneously the best and worst thing that has ever happened to him. And now, as per typical soul mate protocol he was going to be living with Tony with the added complication of Steve. His panic hits a peak as the elevator dings, telling him that he has arrived fully at his destination, but then the door opens and Tony is standing there with a bright smile on his face. Bucky feels his own face light up as the tension drained from his body.

“Hey, you. Come on, I’ll show you around,” Tony says, holding out his hand. Bucky takes it gratefully, feeling a flush or warmth where their hands touched.

“I was nervous,” he admits as Tony curls his fingers through his.

“I noticed. Seems to be cured now,” Tony says, giving him a warm smile. God, Tony had a nice smile- the kind that could make an entire room brighter.

“You have that affect,” he says and Tony laughs. It’s a pretty sound, light and happy and Bucky wanted to hear more of it.

“I really don’t but thanks. Come on, your room is this way.”

He was more than a little surprised that he had his own room though thinking about it he wasn’t sure what else he should have expected. Clearly he wasn’t going to sleep on the couch and Steve and Tony would obviously share a room. Actually he hadn’t been expecting this much space- he knew Tony was rich but he didn’t realize _how_ rich and it was clear that Tony was pretty generous with his money too. He shows Bucky around the rest of the house too, making sure he knew where the kitchen and bathroom were for future reference before bringing him back to his bedroom.

“You have clothes in the dresser and closet. I’m not sure what you so I sort of picked out stuff I like in your size with a few general wardrobe staples. Feel free to tell JARVIS to get you whatever in the meantime,” Tony says, gesturing vaguely around the room. JARVIS, Bucky had learned earlier, was a semi-autonomous AI system that basically assisted Tony throughout his day with work and home life. Tony’s penthouse was a little like walking into a sci-fi novel.

“You got me clothes?” Bucky asks because that’s easier than addressing asking the AI to buy him things. He was not doing that. It would be rude.

“Well yeah, what else were we supposed to do? Let you walk around naked? I mean if you want to there will no complaints from me, I would be totally cool with that. So like. Feel free, but I figured you’d be more comfortable in pants so uh, I bought you some pants. You should have seen what SHIELD was going to give you. You would have looked like a bad eighties villain,” Tony says, shaking his head.

Bucky laughs softly and looks around his room again. Tony managed to make it look pretty personal all things considered. There was color on the walls, knick-knacks scattered around, a T.V, and even a picture of him and Steve as kids. He wasn’t really sure what to do here, what he was _allowed_ to do here so for a long few seconds he stands there silently.

“If you want some space I can go,” Tony says, turning to leave but Bucky catches his arm.

“Please don’t,” he says softly, gently pulling Tony closer. “Please stay.” Tony nods, squeezing his arm gently and pulling him towards the bed.

“Lay down. We can watch a movie,” he says. Bucky does as he’s asked, curling into Tony’s side when he sits down beside him. Tony tells JARVIS to pick the movie, which Bucky finds odd, and then the T.V turns on, which he finds even more odd. As the movie plays Bucky slips further down in the bed until his head is in Tony’s lap while Tony pets his hair, running his fingers through the long strands. He falls asleep like that eventually, missing the end of the movie.

*

It hadn’t occurred to Bucky that Steve was conspicuously missing from the penthouse the day before but with his back to Bucky as he makes his morning coffee it seems obvious. When he woke up in the morning Tony hadn’t been there, but Bucky assumed he went back to his own room. He wants to ask Steve but he doesn’t, staying quiet instead.

“Here,” Steve says, turning and sliding a cup of coffee across the island Bucky was standing behind. He eyes the cup of coffee for a moment, not even sure if he liked coffee or not. “You’ll like it, trust me. When we were in high school you worked in a coffee shop, I know how you like your coffee.” The words are clipped, annoyed. Obviously he wasn’t fond of Bucky’s presence here but he picks up the coffee anyways, taking a tentative drink. He’s surprised when he likes the drink, though the odd hazelnut flavor surprised him more. “Told you,” Steve says in the same clipped tone before walking off to go do whatever he planned on doing that day.

Bucky decides to sit down on one of the stools that at one end of the island with his coffee until he figured out what to do with all the hours in the day. God, that seemed so daunting…

“Hey you, didn’t think you’d be much of a morning person,” Tony says, coming from the same direction Steve just left in.

“I don’t think I used to be. Not really sure how I work now,” he says, immediately cursing himself for dumping so much on Tony all at once. Damnit.

Tony grins though, “well, we’ll figure it out, won’t we? Come on and finish that coffee baby, we have a date,” he says, grinning at him cheerily. Bucky relaxes some, thankful that at least some of his day would be occupied by something other than the need to _do_ something without knowing what.


End file.
